


Sins of The Chosen

by Lady_LB



Series: Truce [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Truce with Hawmoth Explained
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24954013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_LB/pseuds/Lady_LB
Summary: From a grumpy and formally imprisoned Kwami to hearing Hawkmoth's demands and a tentative agreement to fight their mutual enemy, young adults Adrien and Marinette will have to work to strengthen their new team before they lose their miraculous and an ancient war that has yet to be finished is fought.The time for peace is over, and it's finally time for some answers...A quote from the most recent chapter 9, Gabriel looked around at the others as he remarkably asked, “now, correct me if I’m wrong, but you said that you were missing your miraculous?”
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Emilie Agreste/Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Series: Truce [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1152794
Comments: 42
Kudos: 59





	1. A Miraculous Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Just to catch everyone up with some of the major points of the story so we can just jump into the next part...  
> -All of The Miraculous Team, including Ladybug, Chat Noir, Queen Bee, Rena Rouge and Carapace know who each other are under the mask now.  
> \- Chloe is getting better, but is still Chloe. (more of a fandom good Chloe than canon)  
> \- They are between 17-18 years old and it's about a month until their last class in high school (or the equivalent of it).  
> \- The 12 zodiac Miraculous have not been used in battle or to patrol, yet.  
> \- While he has otherwise been more understanding and trusting of Adrien, to give him the chance to grow up, Gabriel has been out of touch with his son for over a month to hide his 'illness' from being apart from his kwami.  
> \- The beginning of the series was written before we knew where Emelie, Gabriel's wife really was, so that's one of the major differences in this AU. Especially since in season 1, Gabriel and Nathalie were very professional and never seemed to touch.  
> \- Adrien is exceptionally rich, mostly from an inheritance from his deceased grandparents. He has many properties and investments in a trust and is finally being allowed to make more decisions in his life with the help of his friends, his girl friend and his assistant Alex.  
> \- Adrien and Marinette finally figured out who each other were over their working vacation and now they are a happy couple. Adrien also convinced Marinette to model with him occasionally and the public adores them.  
> _ Ladybug and Chat Noir have been learning about two past holders in their dreams, learning from their lives etc.  
> \- Ladybug and Chat Noir have new powers and a shared power, due to both growing up and the dreams. Chat Noir is faster and can turn into a literal cat man without transforming. Ladybug can heal or cause things to grow with her song and together they can transport themselves almost instantly. (It's like she creates a vacuum in space from one point to another and he destroys it as they use it). These powers do not create a countdown with their miraculous either.  
> \- Finally, while there are references to other episodes besides season 1 all the way up to the end of season 3, some episodes never happened in this AU, as far as I can recall, these would not happen the same here or at all: any episodes involving new holders. This series started out with just Ladybug, Chat Noir, Hawkmoth and Master Fu. There was no Miracle Queen, no Heroes Day, no Catalyst etc. 
> 
> As the author, I'll be trying to keep all the chapters between 1500-2500 words and I'm hoping with that limit I'll be able to update more often, as I've been very busy in real life, but I want to finish this tale and will attempt to stick to 12 chapters, but no promises there, so enjoy. 😁
> 
> P.S. Obviously I do not own the characters from Miraculous Ladybug and they are owned by their wonderful creators and owners etc.

**Chapter 1 - A Miraculous Meeting**

Nooroo was preparing himself. It was almost time to confront the young miraculous team, he only hoped that they and their ‘Master’ would listen.

Nooroo remembered a quieter time when the miraculous was protected by a literal army of monks that were part of an order that had protected the miraculous and their various boxes for hundreds of years. They were the ones that chose who would get to bear or protect the miraculous, with the respective kwami’s agreement that is. It was a heavy duty yes, but one that they had become all too complacent about in Nooroo’s opinion, not that they ever thought to ask a kwami, much less one that could sense so much about a person.

Still, over the years, the monks began training and entrusting the miraculous to younger and younger chosen, in the hope that they would grow into better miraculous holders and guardians.

Nooroo remembered being worried about it, especially when he could sense the young initiates feelings and inner struggles. Nooroo could tell that for some of them, their duties were a heavy responsibility, one that they weren’t completely focused upon, due to being so young and having natural desires of those ages that they were just beginning to process.

It was hard on the young human children to be separated from their families, to be held to such strict rules and regulations, all in the name of responsibility, duty and honor.

Nooroo could tell that deep down, such things didn’t mean much to ones so young. After all, Nooroo was the kwami of Transmission, or perhaps it would be better to describe his power as that of empathy. Nooroo gave his chosen the ability to emphasize with another person and provide them with the use of a magical butterfly, an akuma. Sensing a person with strong emotions, his holder could empower a butterfly with miraculous powers and create an akuma for them, to assist them. With that akuma, it was possible to transfer his magical powers to this person, allowing them to accomplish their greatest desire by transforming them into a champion with powers of their own and in their own right.

Ideally, Nooroo’s powers could be used to create only righteous champions, but as history would show, all of the miraculous had been stolen or abused in ways that they were not meant to be at some point. If his chosen was wise and had someone he could trust with similar goals, ah, Nooroo was afraid that his powers were far greater than many could imagine.

Which was why the monks were so hesitant to allow any of the kwami to stretch their wings as it were and why they emphasized their responsibilities to their young initiates, asking for more and more self-control as they protected and hid the miraculous.

The kwami for their part, while having a limited connection to the world were disappointed by this and many of them, Nooroo, Dusuu and even Tikki suggested as carefully as they could, that maybe the young ones should be allowed to grow up a bit more.

The monks would not listen, so perhaps that was their mistake as the future would show.

For now, Nooroo was preparing himself to confront the other miraculous holders, and HIM. The one that was set up to fail by his demanding mentors.

Nooroo sighed as he allowed himself to remember how this all happened and tried to come up with a way to explain how his poor Master was forced into becoming the villain Hawkmoth to the boy who was now an old man and who had started all of this, a man that ironically called himself Master Fu.

…

Nooroo had to admit that he had been surprised that the one that was mostly responsible for starting all of this well over a century ago was the one that had assembled those that would hopefully help solve the problem that they were now facing. It hadn’t taken Nooroo long to recognize his feelings or thoughts, although more mature now, everyone had their own core personality and for the most part this guardian had not changed much.

Nooroo knew more than he let on, as a kwami he had learned long ago that it was best not to offer more information than necessary and to fumble his words intentionally, making him seem meeker than he was. Usually it bought him some concern and a desire to protect him from the humans around him. It also gave him a sense of control in the rising waves of emotions and thoughts that every human emitted, it was important that they did not realize his full potential.

Nooroo could sense the tide of emotions and feelings in the roomas they rose and ebbed with every tick of the clock as the miraculous holders gathered and transformed for their meeting.

Nooroo had found it almost insulting that the old guardian kept his cage covered or hidden from everyone when they came around, as if his promise to his master that he would not tell him anything that he didn’t already know when he returned to him meant very little. Or worse, as if a kwami’s word meant nothing.

Still, it was time.

Time for them to listen, he hoped.

As the guardian released him from his cage of the past eight weeks, Nooroo steadied himself, as he sensed that even though this guardian was over a century old at least, there was a part of him that was still a child, wary and untrusting. Consequences of carrying too much responsibility too soon on his own. Nooroo understood this, but that did not mean that Nooroo would easily forgive him for what had happened.

After some initial hesitance and distrust on his part, Nooroo was allowed to say what he intended to say.

Taking a deep breath, Nooroo announced to the anxiously awaiting Miraculous Team, after reminding them that his Master was a victim here, Nooroo directed what he said towards Master Fu himself as he loudly declared and pointed at the old Guardian, “frankly, Sir, Hawkmoth’s very existence is YOUR fault.”

…

Everyone gasped and Master Fu stuttered as he shook his head, “N-No! That cannot be!”

“No matter what miraculous you wear, I remember you BOY.” Nooroo pointed at Master Fu to make his point dramatically, his little voice taking on a powerful tone that only could be made by a kwami, as the eternal godlike creatures that they were. Nooroo was tired of pretending to be a weak little butterfly, it was time for him to soar and help his Master.

“After all, I am the kwami of Transmission, I give my owner the power to emphasize and give power to others, but you, you were given the responsibility of guarding our miraculous box and failed! You lost both my miraculous and unfortunately also the miraculous of the Peafowl, the miraculous of Emotion. Do you deny it?!”

Master Fu looked down at the floor, shook his head once and whispered, “I do not deny it. There was an accident and I, I lost all of my mentors, my home and two of my charges all in one day.”

The atmosphere was tense as the old man admitted to his mistake, which was a good example to the young ones gathered here as a result, at least, that’s what Nooroo thought.

Master Fu looked up at Nooroo, the pain of his mistake visible on his face, “I sincerely apologize Nooroo for the mistake of my youth, I-I did not know any better.”

Nooroo hummed thoughtfully before speaking, “I will not and cannot accept your apology until Duusu is healed and this mistake has been corrected, as much as it can be. IF you allow us to remain with our holders.”

“That is out of the question, Hawkmoth must not keep your Miraculous!” Master Fu exclaimed with a wave of his hand, silencing the mutual objections of the team.

Nooroo frowned at him, “you may be the Guardian, but as you lost me and Duusu, we now have the right now to decide for ourselves if our holders are worthy. I know that Duusu will want to remain with the holder of the Peafowl miraculous, as she has not tried to leave her.”

“W-wait! You know where the Peafowl miraculous is?!” Master Fu looked shocked as Nooroo nodded that he did.

“That’s great!” Ladybug cheered, “where is it?!”

Nooroo frowned and pouted, waving one little arm away as if to wash away that idea. “That is something that I cannot tell you yet. I have a story to tell you and I ask that you do not interrupt. It begins when this guardian was a boy and lost my miraculous and the miraculous of the Peafowl.”

Everyone nodded and waited patiently for Nooroo to continue, as Master Fu looked ashamed once more but waited to hear Nooroo’s tale.

Nooroo sighed, “I do not know how much time passed, perhaps a century, before a shadow of an old and possessed mage found our miraculous and infected the Peafowl miraculous, which would one day be in the possession of someone that… someone that my Master loves.”

“Hawkmoth can love?” Adrien asked in disbelief.

“Love can be twisted into a powerful motivator.” Nooroo looked at Adrien sadly and only nodded yes that Hawkmoth did indeed love someone, “and their love was deep and strong, creating a bond that only soulmates can create.” He waved at Chat Noir and Ladybug, “much as your love for each other binds you to one another, my Master has such a relationship with the one that he loves, and he would do anything to save them.”

“A-Anything?” Ladybug asked cautiously.

Chat Noir nudged Ladybug slyly as he whispered, “I knew it! We’re soulmates!”

Ladybug huffed, “Chat, not now!”

Chat Noir chuckled as he wrapped his arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders as she rolled her eyes at him.

Nooroo nodded in confirmation, ignoring Chat Noir’s misbehavior. “He has done and will do anything. Even to the extent that he became a villain if only to save her.”

“Dude, save her? Where is she?” The new Turtle, Carapace, asked.

“That is hard to explain.” Nooroo looked hesitant, “but suffice it to say, she is neither here nor there, as is the Peafowl miraculous.”

“What do you mean Nooroo?” Ladybug calmly asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“The shadow of the mage corrupted the Peafowl miraculous, trying to make it into something that it was not meant to be.” Nooroo sighed, “I am not explaining this well.”

“Please, take your time Nooroo.” Ladybug offered, “we really want to understand.”

“Very well.” Nooroo rubbed his paws together as he tried to think of a better way to explain.

“So, about this mage?” Master Fu rubbed his chin, “I thought that they were all practically gone, or at least that’s what I was taught. None have been seen for several centuries.”

“Hmm, there are the shadows of a powerful one left and he, or it, I don’t know how to describe them, they are working together now.” Nooroo offered.

Chloe scoffed, “a mage? Really? What is this a video game?” Chloe interrupted, but quickly apologized when she got the stink eye from several others for interrupting. “S-sorry, go on. Please.”

“Very well. This shadow of a mage corrupted and broke the Peafowl as he tried to make it a receptacle for a dark force, a part of themselves, I think. After many tries, including some fiddling with my own miraculous, he managed to turn the Peafowl miraculous into a trap.”

“A trap?!” Rena Rouge and Chat Noir exclaimed together before quickly apologizing together after a look from everyone else to let Nooroo finish, “sorry.”

Nooroo nodded at them and went on. “He, at least I think he was once a he, he seemed to make it more of a channeling device. Once a strong enough bond to the Peafowl miraculous was made, it would channel the dark force of a shadow connected to it into the holder, but the magic wasn’t perfect and would need more than one person to bear all of the magic. Which, I must say, was quite massive.”

“The miraculous was not meant to be used that way.” Master Fu commented.

“Obviously.” Nooroo took a breath and sighed before continuing, “something went very wrong with their plan. Once the loved one of my Master was bonded enough to the Peacock miraculous, the trap was sprung and now they cannot touch without injuring each other. My Master and his loved one that is.” Nooroo began to sound a little angry as he went on, “They cannot even give into their emotions without causing mental stress and pain to each other when in close proximity. This is how someone loved by my Master was stolen from him and why my Master is in constant mental and personal pain.”

There was another collective gasp as Ladybug softly asked, “h-how?”

“I do not fully understand how it was done; all I know are the results.” Nooroo explained. “Duusu’s holder is the one loved by my Master and once the bond was strong enough, she was bound to ah, a mutual friend, and now, now they share the same body with the massive destructive energies from the shadow of the mage that was previously forced into the Peafowl miraculous.”

Everyone’s eyes bugged out.

It was Chloe that asked the obvious, “well, how did that lead to Hawkmoth calling this so-called truce?”

“That is a story in and of itself.” Nooroo replied almost dismissively. “Which does not change what I am here for or my responsibility to my Master to finish delivering my Master’s message.”

Rena Rouge snapped her fingers, “that’s right he hasn’t made any demands yet, what does Hawkmoth really want Nooroo?”

Nooroo shook his head at her before replying, “my Master only wishes to get your help to rescue them,” the kwami paused dramatically before he thoughtfully added, “and perhaps, to rescue us all.”


	2. The Sins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nooroo explains about the sins that inspired the creation of Hawkmoth.

Master Fu looked remorseful as he remembered how he had lost the Peacock and Butterfly miraculous soon after he had just barely been entrusted with them. He lost them, his home, his mentors, everything. All at an age that was younger than the young miraculous holders before him that were gathered around his table. Even Ladybug and Chat Noir were older than he was when he was sent to the monastery when they became holders.

Still, the miraculous were his responsibility, and he had lost two of them.

Nooroo obviously wasn’t very forgiving about it.

Not that Master Fu could blame him.

Master Fu looked around at the young miraculous holders surrounding him as Nooroo told his tale. Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Queen Bee and Carapace.

Master Fu noted that they were his responsibility now too in a way and he shuttered, as he wondered if he had done the right thing in entrusting them with their miraculous. He took a breath and reminded himself that he could not run from his past any longer and that he had made the right decision to create and trust a new team, led by Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Master Fu was very thankful that Ladybug was a natural leader and Chat Noir was the perfect partner for her.

Especially now that they knew everything about each other, including their identities, and the identities of their teammates around them. Mostly because nothing could be kept between the two couples present and because Queen Bee was far more observant than anyone could have guessed.

Master Fu felt like he had to explain something as he interrupted Nooroo, even though the kwami only had just over thirty minutes left before he could leave his timed prison.

“Excuse me Nooroo, perhaps I should explain how your miraculous was lost?” Master Fu offered.

Nooroo gave him a disapproving look as he disagreed. “Those details do not matter. What matters is what happened and what you will now do to rectify your mistake after that event happened.”

“Harsh Dude.” Carapace muttered as Rena Rouge shushed him.

Master Fu looked properly humiliated, but no one was surprised when Ladybug came to his defense. “Nooroo! He has apologized for losing your miraculous, I know it’s a sore spot,” Chat Noir giggled until his new girlfriend, Ladybug, glared at him to stop before returning her gaze to Nooroo as she said in a calmer tone, “but we need to move on so that we can work together and do what we can to fix this.”

Nooroo sighed, “you are correct young one. How perceptive of you. Forgive me, I know I can be more compassionate, as we are not the only ones that have suffered. However, you must see that the past few years have not been easy on me or my chosen.” Then he softly added, “or, or on Duusu’s.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Ladybug told him kindly, “we may not be able to fully understand, but we can tell that this has been difficult for you.”

“And on my Master too. I would not have accepted him as my Master if he was not worthy.” Nooroo calmly but sincerely explained.

Ladybug gave Master Fu and then Chat Noir a wary look at that comment, but it was Master Fu who responded abruptly, “yes, yes that must be true. So, Hawkmoth was worthy once?”

Nooroo folded his arms defiantly, “I think that he still IS. He was afforded the ability and time to make this truce with you recently and instead of using my Miraculous to it’s fullest ability, he decided to humble himself and to ask for your help instead.”

“For our help?” Ladybug echoed, “how? What can we do?”

Nooroo looked at them as if they should have been able to guess it themselves, he eventually clued them in, “you need to fix the first mistake, the greater mistake.”

There were many confused faces around the table.

“We’re going to save You Dude. Don’t worry.” Carapace offered with a look of confusion.

“Totally, Master Fu has already apologized for losing your miraculous.” Rena Rouge offered.

“Yeah, don’t worry Nooroo, we’ll get your miraculous back and you’ll be free again, you can paws-itively believe it!” Chat Noir announced supportively.

Nooroo almost rolled his eyes as he wearily explained, “I forgot to mention that there are many sins made that must be rectified. The loss of our miraculous was the second sin, we think.” Nooroo fidgeted. “The first and greater sin was the creation of the shadows of this mage.”

“Pardon?” Ladybug offered.

“The shadows of the mage.” Nooroo repeated himself. “The left-over pieces of one of the strongest mages ever.” He looked meaningfully from Chat Noir and then to Ladybug.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” He asked them.

Ladybug and Chat Noir glanced at one another and then turned back to look at Nooroo as they answered and shook their heads together, “no.”

With a roll of his eyes Nooroo tried to explain, “after much research and from what we’ve been able to glean from, ah, the mutual friend, my Master and I highly suspect that they came from the final battle of the Red Witch and her Knight, the Black Cat. The previous holders of your miraculous.”

Nooroo waited for a moment to see if they got it yet, but after a moment he soldiered on, “to ‘stop’ the mage the first time, a wish was used. A wish to separate the stolen powers and abilities that the mage had collected, causing an imbalance in the world and instead of one powerful mage, shadows of him, all separate and yet all vaguely connected were scattered around the world. Nearly forever apart, these shades each had their own powers and abilities, and we think that their desire is to be joined together once again.”

Everyone’s eyes went big as Nooroo went on, “that was the result of the first sin of the chosen and the imbalance that triggered many things, we think.”

Master Fu was rubbing his chin thoughtfully as Ladybug and Chat Noir were looking at each other, remembering the dreams that they have been having of the former holders of their miraculous. They had first heard about them when they had visited an exhibit about the miraculous at the museum. Master Fu had explained that learning about previous holders could potentially cause this.

In the couple’s dreams, they enhanced their current fighting abilities and learned how to use the powers of the Red Witch and her knight, the Black Cat, as they experienced many scenes from their lives in their dreams. They also experienced some of their most trying moments in those dreams.

As a result, Chat Noir could instantly become a fast-moving cat man without transforming if he got agitated, growing deadly long claws and canines. Ladybug could now heal or make things grow with her song. Together, they now had the ability to transport themselves over long distances instantly.

So far however, they had not dreamed of the final battle. Only of a wicked mage that killed gifted people and that the former holders had been fighting.

Chat Noir became oddly quiet whenever Ladybug had tried to talk about the memories that they were reliving in their dreams, and the cat’s behavior now was no different. He became quiet and oddly detached.

Which Ladybug noticed, but decided to ask him about it later. Instead, Ladybug asked, “wait, so the exhibit at the museum was put there to trigger our memories of our past holders?”

Nooroo nodded, “it was a necessary evil. You cannot fight that which you do not know. From what my Master and his uh, friend, have been able to determine you needed to know how to fight this mage, or how at least how he was fought before. He almost won in his fight against the earlier holders, they died making that wish to separate his powers, thinking that it would destroy him and allow his stolen abilities to return to their former owners or disappear completely. We don’t know why that didn’t work. What they did not know is that now, centuries later, these shades of what was left of him have sought each other out and seem to be trying to combine themselves once more.”

“Why Dude? They were defeated once, we’ll just defeat him once again!” Carapace offered cheerfully.

“Carapace.” Master Fu scolded, “as I have been trying to teach you, a wish demands balance. The wish that created the shades shouldn’t have been made in the first place.”

“Yes, Master.” Carapace answered dutifully.

“How are we supposed to defeat them then? If they get recombined, they’ll become one of the strongest mages ever seen and what, take over the world?! Oh, this is more awful than Hawkmoth!” Ladybug began to fret and Chat Noir squeezed her shoulder supportively to help ground her, she took a deep breath and exhaled, muttering, “sorry, I haven’t done that in a while, and uh, thanks.”

“We’ll figure out how to defeat them Mi-Lady.” Chat Noir told her calmly but supportively, “but what I don’t understand is how these shades made Hawkmoth want our miraculous.”

“Ah yes, I knew I forgot something.” Nooroo nodded, “there were many mistakes, sins as it were. The first was the use of a wish, the second, the loss of our miraculous.”

Master Fu sighed and looked abashed again.

“You were young, but most importantly you’re trying to make up for it. That is what is important.” Nooroo actually sounded kind as he said that.

“However, there is more,” Noroo went on, “there was the enchantment of the Peafowl miraculous, forcing it to become a trap to transfer one of the shades to the love of my Master and their friend, forcing them to share the same body.”

Everyone gasped as they finally understood that.

Nooroo looked a little sheepish, “we think that a touch of another magic connected my Master to them in the process, but I’ll explain that later if need be. The third mistake by a chosen, was by using the Peafowl, despite being warned not to, Duusu was aware of its corruption after all, but while worthy, the love of my Master could not resist using it until the trap enchanted into it was inescapable.”

Nooroo paused before adding, “the fourth mistake, perhaps, was my Master’s decision to save his love, to become Hawkmoth.”

There were gasps around the room as Nooroo held up his hand and revealed, “my Master made that decision because the shade that is now connected to his love and friend threatened to hurt them if he did not get your miraculous.”

Carapace loudly added, “Dude! That’s why he totally asks for the miraculous to be handed over! They’d be more powerful for a wish if given willingly or if they were lost in battle!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Queen Bee interrupted, “you make it sound like IF they refused to fight or just hand over their miraculous that Hawkmoth couldn’t use their miraculous for a wish!”

“Hmm, that’s a possibility. A miraculous holder must defend their miraculous to be worthy of it, but a wish would be more powerful if they were given willingly,” Master Fu mused, “but if I am understanding you correctly Nooroo, Hawkmoth is not doing this for himself. He serves these shades.”

“I’m glad you understand, but it is unwillingly I assure you.” Nooroo told them genuinely. “He wants your help to save his love, his friend and to defeat these shades, this mage and to stop him from whatever he’s planned.”

“To take over the world.” Ladybug whispered, “that, that was what the mage wanted the first time, wasn’t it?” She looked to Chat Noir for confirmation.

“I don’t remember much from the dreams I’ve had about that.” Chat Noir looked thoughtful as he considered what he remembered, “but the mage I remember wanted to be the best at everything. Stealing the gifts of truly gifted people, and then leaving them as, heh, shadows of themselves.”

Ladybug sighed and admitted, “I remember one of his victims in my dreams, they were sick. Hollow, like a piece of them was missing.” She swallowed as she looked around at the group, “I guess there was. I, uh, I think I should mention that most of them didn’t live very long after the initial attack. Those that did were never the same and needed someone to remind them to eat. There wasn’t anything my predecessor could do for them.”

Everyone nodded as they processed this. There was someone more powerful than Hawkmoth calling the shots and they wanted the miraculous, again.

Chat Noir finally spoke up, “I do remember confronting him, the mage, more than once. Not the final battle, but somehow, we were able to remove a few of the stolen abilities, one at a time. If the person it came from was alive, it was like a specter or ghost of them, but after pausing for a moment, it’d rush off to its previous owner. If they were uh, gone,” Chat Noir gulped, “the mage would be able to break free from the struggle and reclaim it, unless…”

Chat Noir swallowed again and looked haunted by whatever the previous Black Cat had to do.

“What is it Kitty?” Ladybug softly asked.

“He, the previous cat, he uh, he decided that it was better to weaken the mage by not letting the piece of the dead to be reclaimed. He, he cataclysmed it.” Chat Noir sighed. “I only remember it happening a few times, and the specter that I, uh, he destroyed, would try to get back to the mage, more often than not.”

“There was likely enough of a soul imbued in the spectres you saw, that it didn’t want to die.” Master Fu observed. “Despite their true body and probably part of their souls being gone already. Being a part of a new whole was better than being a shade.”

“Souls?” Rena Rouge whispered.

“Yes.” Master Fu nodded, “I heard of myths of such magicians when I was a child. I wasn’t aware that it was real, but they called them soul reapers. Magicians that would magically cut out or steal part of someone’s soul, usually the part that influenced their special abilities and would link it to their own. The stories I heard however, never mentioned such a magician that did it frequently, since it blackens the main soul that the others are attached to. There is always a price to such unnatural magic.”

Many of the group were hugging themselves unknowingly, feeling cold at the mere topic.

Master Fu cleared his throat, “what does Hawkmoth want from us then Nooroo? Besides the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculous that is?”

“My Master wants your help to defeat the shades of course. To release everyone under their control and I must emphasize that he doesn’t truly want the miraculous, or at least not yours. If he had, he could have used much more evil men to accomplish his goal.” Then Nooroo looked proud. “My Master was buying time for such a day that he could work with you and stop them, before they accomplished their desires, he had to wait, because they were watching.”

“Watching?” Rena Rouge echoed, “how?”

“The shade that was part of the trap can watch and at times gave orders through, through my Master’s loved one at, uh, at certain times.” Nooroo stumbled over his words, “b-but I can’t tell you much more besides that. The truce was struck soon after my Master decided that it was the only alternative and that this was the first time, err, chance he had to do it. You see, they can’t watch through her right now.”

“They can’t?!” Rena Rouge practically squealed, “that means that we’ve got the element of surprise!”

“Wait, why can’t they Nooroo?” Ladybug asked.

“Yeah, what happened?” Chat Noir echoed.

“I’ll tell you, if you agree to help my Master.” Nooroo steadied himself and looked around at the astonished group as his bluntly stated as he addressed Ladybug and Chat Noir, “Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste, will you, as the chosen of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous respectively, aid my Master and save the world?”


	3. Nooroo Knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nooroo revealed that he, and Hawkmoth, knows the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir.   
> They plan on whether or not to agree to help Hawkmoth...

“H-How? How, umm…”” Ladybug stumbled over the word as she eyed Nooroo worriedly, not that she was the only one in the room wondering that.

Meanwhile, Nooroo was smiling at Ladybug and Chat Noir with a slight and knowing grin after sharing the fact that he knew who they were.

“I-I mean, what do you mean ha ha ha?!” Ladybug looked around nervously as she tried to deny it. Everyone around her didn’t buy it though, which was apparent as they slapped their hands to their foreheads or groaned together, or both.

Chat Noir looked alarmed with his gapping mouth and wide eyes, but eventually nodded that he wanted an answer too.

“Oh my G-“ Chloe eventually groaned out loud, but she was cut off by Nooroo.

“Ahem.” Nooroo gave her a look for her language as he quickly continued, “is it so hard to believe that my Master told me to be as forthcoming as possible? He already suspected that you were, or are, who you ARE before he sent me here.” Nooroo blinked at them. “Besides, I have been near you before he sent me to you, when you were civilians and being as empathetic as I am, it wasn’t hard to identify you for certain.”

He waved his little arm, “my Master does not need me to confirm his suspicions either, and he doesn’t want me to. He practically knows who you are already.”

“Wait, you’ve been near them, when they were civilians?!” Rena Rouge gasped. “How did they, err we, not know?”

Nooroo had begun to loosen up and teased, “how is it that they did not see each other until recently? It’s much easier to see who they are with my powers.” Then he looked around the room and listed off the other miraculous holders in turn, “Chloe Bourgeois, Alya Cesaire and Nino Lahiffe, I assume that those are your identities? My Master hired Nino to deliver me to show what he knew through trusted and well-paid channels, knowing that he was a friend of yours.” He waved at Chat Noir and Ladybug as he explained himself.

Carapace groaned, “Dude, now my music set is tainted!”

“Nino!” Rena Rouge ribbed him, “it’s totally not. Don’t think about it okay?”

Nooroo chuckled and glanced at his timer, seeing that he was almost out of time. Then he asked, “may I have your answer? Will you help my Master?”

Ladybug looked around at her team and glanced at Master Fu for his approval, and with encouraging nods from everyone, she answered the kwami. “We’ll help Nooroo. Where do we begin?”

Nooroo visibly relaxed, “thank you. I was worried that you wouldn’t help to save my Master and the others after all this time. He told me to give you three days to prepare to meet him, as he knew he would be quite sick and would need at least that much time to recover enough to plan with you.”

There were hesitant nods all around the table as Master Fu cleared his throat, “some basic Elderberry, Ginseng and Ginger tea may help with that.”

Nooroo smiled and then tilted his head, “Thank you. I will pass on that advice. Now, where shall he meet you? With how ill he is, it will be difficult for him to come to you, unless you wouldn’t mind coming to him?”

“He’ll trust us with his identity?” Ladybug questioned.

Nooroo nodded, “yes. At this point he will, in three days. You see, my Master is a proud man and it will be difficult for him to allow you to see him at less than his best, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Dude, wait, he’s trying to save his loved one and he wants to wait three days?!” Carapace looked shocked.

Nooroo chuckled, “it’s not that he wants to. I advised him to and that was his final but reluctant decision. We think that there will be at least another week, maybe three, before the shade connected to his wife,” everyone gasped, “will be able to communicate through her or with the others. Even now I can sense that my Master is quite ill. He has returned to the city and if I don’t return to him, he’ll be dead within a week.”

At that, the lock that had Nooroo connected to the chain that was holding him there magically released him and it fell off of him to the table below. He stretched and flew once around them in a circle, “ah, that feels much better.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a little while?” Ladybug asked.

Nooroo shook his head, “no, my Master needs me. He used to get overwhelmed easily with my extra senses that I provided him, but he has grown used to them. Without them, it has probably been like the world has been on mute to a degree. As if you were wearing earplugs all of the time as it were, but more intense than that, as well as the physical illness brought on by the separation. He, he has been suffering without me nearby.” He finished with a sad voice as he dipped in the air and looked around the room as he changed the subject, “now, before I take my leave, where shall we meet?”

“We should keep it as private as possible.” Ladybug thought aloud.

Nooroo looked at Chat Noir and suggested, “perhaps in your bedroom? It would be large enough for the entire group and then you can keep this place a secret from my Master. He ordered me not to tell him where I was kept, for your piece of mind.”

Chat Noir scratched one of his cat ears, “I guess that would be okay? Maybe on Thursday? At seven PM after dinner? I could try to ask Nathalie to keep my Father busy or something, somehow.” Adrien gave a shrug wondering how he would do that.

With another dip in the air and an almost wry grin Nooroo replied as he felt Adrien’s concern that that may be an issue, “that would be acceptable. I have heard that Mrs. Nathalie has a weakness for dark chocolate raspberry truffles from the shop Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse. A gift of them ought to get her to do nearly anything you want her to.”

(Author’s note: That’s a real place found on Google that looked good to this writer who is on a diet…) ~~~~

Adrien raised his eyebrow, “I-I didn’t know that.”

“Dude! If you don’t know that, how does the little dude!” Carapace blurted.

Nooroo told them, “I think that at this point and time that it is safe to say that my Master has been in the presence of Mrs. Nathalie.”

Everyone inhaled dramatically and Nooroo rolled his eyes before dipping his head and began excusing himself, “now, I really must be going. Thank you for your hospitality young Masters, we will see you Thursday. Oh, and before I go,” he looked at Ladybug and then Chat Noir once more, “I think that I must add that you should prepare yourselves. Things are not what they seem.”

A perplexed Chat Noir took and squeezed Ladybug’s hand in own as she nodded that they would try, but was unable to answer because of their companions.

“Well of course not! Hawkmoth’s a slave to some mad Mage’s leftover parts!” Queen Bee interrupted, only to be followed by Rena Rouge.

“And not only that, but he’s close to Nathalie! Which probably means he’s close to A- umm, Chat’s father!”

“Perhaps.” Nooroo didn’t seem to want to argue or entirely agree with that either, “goodbye for now then and it goes without saying that my Master will not akumatize anyone else in the meantime. Good day.”

Then Nooroo gave them a little wave before he zipped out of the room, faster than many of them had seen their own kwami fly, and presumably back to Hawkmoth.

“We have much to discuss.” Master Fu resolutely sighed, “it appears that we will need to be prepared for anything.”


	4. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a meeting with Master Fu, the team works on their plan at Chloe's hotel.

“Dude.” Nino groaned as he stretched and leaned back on the couch in Chloe’s room. 

They were back at her father’s hotel now since they had all voted to hang out for some team bonding and to work on their plans after Master Fu had finally released them from that crazy meeting with Nooroo. Chloe had volunteered her place for a get together after a quick patrol.

“I’ve got to admit, that ‘Dude’ is right Bro.” Adrien agreed as he bit into the croissant that his girlfriend had provided since she had stopped by her house to get some snacks for the group on the way to the hotel. “I mean, I just can’t believe that Hawkmoth knows who we are!”

“Totally!” Nino agreed.

All the girls nodded, except for Marinette, who was still catastrophizing…

“I know!” Marinette practically screeched as she hopped up from her seat next to Adrien as she started pacing the room, again. “I can’t believe we agreed to work with him so easily! I mean, what if this is all part of his great master plan to get our miraculous? What if…”

Adrien stuffed the rest of his snack into his mouth and swallowed it before getting up and stepping in front of her. Gently taking her flailing hands in his own, he made her pause and hold still. This wasn’t the first time that she had spiraled about her worries around him since they got together and he doubted that it would be her last, especially about the big stuff. 

Thankfully, if there was anything a cat was good at was looking like they were relaxing when they’re worried out of their gourd too.

“You KNOW why we agreed Bugaboo. That mage from the past was THE worst! Our predecessors barely defeated him. Don’t you remember the dreams? We’ve talked about this right? We can handle this together and the more allies we have, the better off we’ll be.”

He gave her hands a squeeze of reassurance and smiled down at her, glad that he was able to be there for her this way and to help her to calm down.

Marinette sighed, “that’s just it. They didn’t defeat him, like they thought that they did. Well, not all the way and… and they died!” She teared up a little as she looked up into Adrien’s face. “I-I don’t want you to die! We-we just found each other!”

He pulled her closer and brought her hands to his chest as he embraced her. “Milady. My Love, we’re together and we have a team now, we’re better informed this time and we’re going to win this!” Adrien did his best to give her a supportive smile.

Marinette couldn’t help but reciprocate, and then leaned in for a quick kiss…

Which of course, didn’t happen.

“Eww! Can you two stop bee-ing so disgusting!” Chloe demanded halfheartedly, startling them and causing them to bashfully pull away from their almost kiss. 

“I mean come on, you have me, I mean us,” she quickly corrected before going on, “this time! We’re going to win and Master Fu was right. We’re going to need more Miraculous!”

“Yeah! I am so STOKED!” Alya squealed, “Master Fu is going to choose a few more holders and he wants our suggestions!”

Alya turned to Marinette as she stood confidently with her hand on her hip, “you’ve got to admit it Gurl, we’ve got this!”

Marinette laughed at her friend’s antics and smiled gratefully, “you’re right. I-I need to stop worrying so much. Alright.” She took a deep breath and then released it before smiling as she clapped her hands together. “Who do you think would make good holders?”

Everyone was quite for a moment.

Chloe rolled her eyes and suggested, “my vote for the canine is Sabrina. She’s loyal and stronger than she looks, her father has made her take a lot of self-defense classes and while I hate to admit it, she even showed me some things. I think that it’d suit her.”

Marinette and Adrien nodded at that in agreement with their friend and ally.

“That’s a good idea Chloe, thanks!” Adrien told her and Chloe beamed at the praise.

Marinette smiled and chuckled before she started counting on her fingers. “Yeah, I think that she’d be a good match for it. I think that we also need to find holders for either the pig, the tiger, the snake, the mouse, the dragon, the horse, the rabbit and the monkey. We should also pick people that we all know and are comfortable with, it’ll help with our team dynamic.”

Adrien sat down again as he pulled Marinette onto his lap, causing her to blush a little before settling down seeing that no one there seemed bothered by it. It was something that he’d started doing when he wanted to feel more secure or when she seemed to need the support lately. He wrapped one of his arms around her waist lovingly before he hummed for a moment before suggesting as he rubbed the back of his neck, “you know, if we want people that work well together, why don’t we just invite all of Kitty Section? They’re a team all of their own and we all get along with them.”

Carapace chuckled, “well Dudes, we all know everyone from our class. Why not the whole class?”

Marinette hummed, “I don’t think that we should bring out ALL of the miraculous. I want the rabbit miraculous only there as a backup to be honest. Chat and I know that we were going to give it to Alix someday,” she shrugged, “it’s probably time.”

“It’s not going to be easy to get her to sit on the sidelines.” Alya commented.

“Well Babe, she’ll need to learn how to do that. The Rabbit miraculous is the miraculous of last resort, it’s very powerful.” Nino offered. “Messing with time can get messy really quickly.”

“True.” Alya nodded. “Okay, so what was the plan again?”

“Hawkmoth knows about us as a team.” Marinette waved a hand around the room, “but if we keep it a secret, he won’t know about our back up team that we’re going to create with some of the zodiac miraculous and also with Alix bearing the Rabbit miraculous as a bit of insurance.”

“You come up with the best plans Bugaboo.” Adrien practically cooed into her ear making her blush.

“Eww, come on! Not while we’re watching Pa-lease!” Chloe whined again before rolling her eyes at them. “Your attention should be on planning, not each other! I mean the world is in danger and you’re both being ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

“Yeah Dudes I hate to agree with Chloe, but focus okay? We need to send somebody back to get back to Master Fu with our suggestions tonight so we can train with the newbies tomorrow.” Nino stated.

“Alright, I’ll be good.” Adrien answered, causing Marinette to roll her eyes in disbelief.

Adrien held up his hand, “oh, and remember that we also have to consider that Master Fu told us that Mari and I are far enough along to merge our miraculous with another one safely for an extended period. Maybe even three, but that would wear us out too quickly, probably.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “why it’s just you two I don’t know, but whatever, that means that we don’t need to find eight people, just six.”

“And decide which ones you two want to keep for yourselves.” Alya added. “I think you’d make an adorable mouse Marinette!”

Marinette leaned into Adrien and giggled at the idea, “yeah, me with two hair buns for ears!”

Adrien sighed, wrapping both of his arms around her and then gave her a peck on her temple, “you’d be adorable!” Then he teased, “just think, then we can play cat and mouse!”

“Adrien!” Marinette gently slapped his arm at that.

Nino groaned, “Dudes! Focus! We can’t just make these decisions on who will look best with what miraculous! I mean we totally have to consider what works best together!”

Chloe huffed, “well then, Mr. Guardian in training, what do you suggest?”

Nino pulled off his hat and ran his hand through his hair nervously, “well, we have to think about the personalities of the chosen for them all to make good matches. Also, with the two that Adrien and Marinette plan on using with their own, they should choose miraculous that complement their own too since some work better than others.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that! Which one would work best for me?” Adrien asked eagerly. “I bet I’d look like an awesome cat-snake!”

“Well uh, actually, when we consider the powers, you’d match best with something with chaotic energy or destructive powers to combine with Plagg.” Nino informed him, “like the Dragon, the Tiger, the Monkey or maybe even the Goat? The snake would work just about as well for either of you, but I think Marinette would do better with it since she’s always coming up with all those crazy plans of hers.”

Everyone chuckled at that.

“That’s my Lady.” Adrien praised.

Marinette blushed and shook her head gently, brushing the comments off, “that makes sense. What about me?”

“Well, creation goes with just about everything to a degree, I mean, anyone that starts out good can use a miraculous once they’ve won over the kwami, but some are better than others. While Plagg can be a bit territorial…”

“Hey!” Plagg stopped eating his pile of cheese to object while the other kwami that were snacking on their various treats giggled at his response as they listened in on the conversation. 

“Sorry man, that’s the rep you’ve got!” Nino explained.

Plagg scoffed as Tikki teasingly added, “they’ve got you pegged Stinky Sock!”

Plagg huffed with dare we say a blush as he muttered, “whatever.” Then he returned to his cheese mumbling, “you’ll never treat me like this will you?”

Everyone chuckled at the kwami’s antics, before Marinette called them to order with a small cough, “Nino, you were saying?”

“Yeah, right, umm, Tikki seems to naturally work best with the Mouse, the Peacock or the Moth Miraculous.”

Chloe snorted and commented ironically, “well naturally. I wonder which one that leaves her with then?”

“Just because it would work best with Tikki, that doesn’t mean that it would be the best choice for me.” Marinette commented as she thought about it. “Hmm, although I can see some potential with the Mouse.”

“Well, let’s get back to the people we want to use the others then.” Chloe suggested. “We have Sabrina, that’s one. Alix is two. You mentioned that Kitty Section group? Are they even here for the summer?”

Alya snapped her fingers, “that’s right! They had their first tour and then they were going to go on family vacations!” She pulled out her phone, “I’m going to see who’s in town, that might help us out here.”

“I already know that Sabrina’s available.” Chloe commented with a toss of her hair, “I’m amazing that way.”

“Sure Chloe.” Adrien grinned at his old friend as he hugged Marinette.

“I’ll see about everyone else in class!” Marinette volunteered as she pulled out her phone and Adrien hummed, resting his head on her shoulder to watch her type away on her phone.

…

After about forty minutes, they had a list of suggestions for Master Fu, plus full bellies from all of the snacks provided by Marinette or ordered from the kitchen of the hotel by Chloe.

Carapace was almost unanimously elected to deliver the message to Master Fu since he was the one saddled with being the guardian in training.

Despite his protests that is, after he was bribed with a group hangout at Chloe’s, err her father’s spa, on the morning before they were going to meet Hawkmoth for some last minute relaxation and team bonding.

Of course, after having grown used to the previously too personal massages while on the working vacation with Adrien, Nino quickly agreed as he folded up the list that Alya had written up. Then he transformed and headed out the patio doors into the night all too eager to ensure that he earned his future massage.

“See you in the morning Dudes!” He now happily called over his shoulder as he hopped onto the balcony railing.

“Don’t forget to ask Master Fu when we can meet our new team turtle boy!” Chloe called out.

“Totally!” Nino answered with a wave before he jumped away to meet their Master.


	5. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gathering the new team...

After having breakfast together at Marinette’s, Adrien and Marinette had another photoshoot that they decided that they could fit in before they had to deal with everything with the team. Adrien was still surprised at how much fun modeling could be when he was able to model with his lovely Lady.

Of course, he was chided more than once for hugging Marinette too close for a shot, not that she minded, because occasionally she’d be reminded of the same. Things went a little longer than they expected today because of what they were modeling and because they didn’t want to face what they’d soon have to deal with.

But their diversion wasn’t going to last, as the appearance of their friends was soon to show.

Alya and Nino were escorted onto the set just as it was finishing up after all, and frankly the couple was happy that shoot was in the Agreste office building studio this time.

“Dude!” Nino called out to Adrien, “you getting cold there man?” Referencing the pajama bottoms he was wearing while shirtless and being hugged by a robed yet blushing Marinette from behind him, who blushed deeper as well, since it was a photoshoot for the winter nightwear line for Gabriel.

Adrien blushed slightly as his photographer exclaimed, “perfecto! More!” As he took a few more shots, Marinette and Adrien moved slightly for a few more clicks. They adjusted once more and then the photographer exclaimed, “wonderful as always, that’s a wrap!”

Having patiently waited until they were done, Alya turned to Marinette and whistled at her before saying suggestively, “you’re devious gurl! Agreeing to model with Adrien just to get him to take his shirt off!”

“A-Alya!” Marinette exclaimed after tying her robe tightly as they walked up to them as if she wasn’t already fully covered up. Just before slapping Alya on the arm that is, “you know it’s not like that between us!”

Adrien snorted and grinned, “like she needs an excuse to get me to take off my shirt. The night before last she asked to take my measurements and it was off before she finished asking!” Then he proudly pecked Marinette on her temple as she blushed at his insinuation.

“Dude!”

“You get it girlfriend!”

“It wasn’t like that and Adrien stop leading them on! I really wanted to double check his measurements since I wanted to make us matching jackets now that we’re back in Paris.” Then she gave Adrien a look, “by the way, next time I ask, wait until we’re alone. My Papa doesn’t need to think that I have you trained to undress with just my voice!”

“You didn’t!” Alya gasped.

“He did.” Marinette rolled her eyes as she turned and walked towards her changing room.

Adrien shrugged, “what can I say, I’m a model and I have the most beautiful designer girlfriend. How could I resist?!”

“Adrien!” Marinette whined as she beckoned to him shyly as she sulked towards her dressing room and then pointed him towards his own, “we need to get ready…”

“My lady calls!” Adrien grinned and waved goodbye to their chuckling friends as he turned to follow her like a lost puppy, err, kitten, “we’ll be back in a few after we get dressed. Then we can go and get lunch with Chloe!”

Nino nodded and Alya shook her head at their antics. Those two were impossible.

…

Lunch with Chloe went well. Nino told them discreetly that they’d get to meet the new team that evening at patrol. Then Nino and Alya had to leave to go babysit their siblings, so Adrien and Marinette took their time finishing the desert that they were sappily sharing as they fed it to each other.

After paying, Adrien and Marinette were walking out together, planning on stopping by the museum once again in case they missed anything the last time they were there about the previous miraculous holders, when they were surprised by meeting someone that they hadn’t planned on seeing again so soon.

Apparently, their old friend was back in town without telling them, but still they were happy to see her and her mother enter the hotel restaurant as they were leaving it.

“Kagami! It’s good to see you!” Adrien called out, approaching her immediately as he tugged Marinette beside him by the hand to greet her.

“Adrien. Marinette.” Kagami nodded at them each, after her mother excused herself to talk to the hostess to get their table ready. “It’s good to see you two as well. Congratulations on finally getting together.”

“Thank you!” Marinette responded and Adrien nodded his thanks as well.

“I didn’t know that you were in town.” Adrien stated, “I thought that you moved back to Japan?”

“We did, however we’ve come to visit Paris for mother to take care of some business and I have a fencing competition here in a few days.” She raised an eyebrow at Adrien, “as I understand it though, the competition will likely be mediocre?”

Adrien nodded, catching on to the fact that she noticed that he wasn’t competing for once.

“Ah yeah, I’m taking a break right now, but you might find a challenge there?” He suggested hopefully.

“Since you’re not competing, I’ll have far less worthy competition.” She offhandedly complemented him. “Which not only is disappointing, but it doesn’t make sense. I thought that your father expected you to compete as well?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, “ah, I’ve been a bit distracted lately.” Adrien admitted as he nudged Marinette. “I’ve been spending some quality time with my girlfriend while I can, and honestly, winning fencing competitions was something that I did for my father’s sake. While I like to fence, I’d rather not spend the whole day waiting for my turn to compete when I know that I’m good enough to win already. I don’t need another trophy and father has started to allow me to make my own schedule for the most part so I’m cutting down the number of competitions that I enter to do other things.” Then he winked at Marinette, who turned a very rosy color for some reason.

“A-Adrien!” Marinette exclaimed.

Kagami only giggled and smiled at them as she noted how close they were to each other, holding each other’s hands, “at least you’re distracting him properly I see.”

Marinette blushed again, still not used to being called his girlfriend as she confirmed it, “yeah, I’ll admit that I enjoy distracting him. Besides, Adrien’s own personal assistant, Alex, tends to keep Adrien on his toes.”

Kagami nodded stoically, “I would do the same in your position, making my own schedule that is.” Then she sighed, “however, my mother has high expectations for me and I don’t foresee her relinquishing her hold on my schedule. Besides, I do enjoy winning too much in fencing to quit, so I doubt that would happen even if I could make my own schedule. I’ll miss having you as a competitor Adrien, but I’m happy for you both.”

“Thank you.” Marinette and Adrien responded together and then chuckled at their timing.

Marinette nodded towards Kagami meaningfully and Adrien understood what she wanted as he offered, “well, I still practice. Would you like us to practice together while you’re in town? I can have Alex call you to set it up?”

“I would enjoy that, if it’s alright with your girlfriend?” Kagami looked at Marinette as if she expected her to forbid it.

Marinette being Marinette however only smiled and nodded, “I’ll probably come along to watch with my sketch book in case I get inspired, if that’s ok?” She glanced at Adrien, who beamed at the suggestion, then looked back at Kagami.

Kagami nodded, “that would be acceptable.” She noticed her mother beckoning to her despite her blindness, “I look forward to it. I must go now, I’ll see you two later then.”

With a wave goodbye, Kagami walked away proudly with a small smile on her face.

“I wonder if Master Fu knows that she’s in town?” Marinette whispered to Adrien who nodded in agreement as they left the hotel.

“I’ll text Nino and let him know, they still have time to see if she’s willing to join us.”

Marinette chuckled, “Kagami turning down a chance to fight in an epic battle? I’m more likely to give up designing!”

Adrien squeezed her hand, “I’m just glad that she’ll be on our side!”

“Me too.” Marinette agreed as they headed towards the museum on foot as Marinette contemplated about having gone there as ‘just friends’ so long ago. It may have only been two months ago, but it still seemed like it had been two years after all that had changed since then.

Marinette hummed and Adrien glanced at her adoringly, as he tended to do whenever he had the opportunity as they both appreciated all that had changed between them silently as they moved towards their future, together.

…

That evening, the new back up team of miraculous holders would gather for the first time.


	6. Tuesday Evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparring with the whole team isn't exactly easy when everyone is miraculous.
> 
> Also, Adrien had to give himself a new punny nickname...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you that have been following along, I realized I didn't like how the last chapter ended, so I cut out the ending and sort of rewrote it into this new more descriptive chapter. I hope you like it.

Adrien and Marinette hadn’t found anything new at the museum, besides some good old fashioned hand holding, but it was a good break from their modeling and superhero work before dinner.

After a good meal at the Dupain-Cheng’s for dinner, the young couple met up with the new back up team of miraculous holders as the whole miraculous team gathered for the first time.

However, a few of their potential partners were out of town and were unable to join them in the fight. 

This meant that there would be no Rabbit miraculous in play, as Alix wasn’t in town. She would be perfect for it with her knowledge of history as the daughter of a historian but she was unfortunately on a dig with her family in Eygpt.

Their other friends, Ivan, Mylene, Kim and Max were also unable to join in the battle as well since they were out of the country too.

That meant that their backup team was made up of Sabrina, who had the Dog miraculous, Juleka with the Tiger, Luka with the Snake, Rose with the Goat and Kagami with the Dragon.

As an extra precaution, Adrien and Marinette had been taught earlier that day after lunch by Master Fu to merge their miraculous with another one.

Adrien received the Monkey miraculous and Marinette the Mouse miraculous for that purpose.

After a quick briefing, they split up into pairs for some sparing. Sabrina and Chloe verses Kagami and Luka, and Juleka and Rose against Rena Rouge and Carapace. 

Chat Noir and Ladybug left briefly to transform into Capuchin and Multimouse.

However, even after having been gone for only ten minutes (due to a brief makeout session), Multimouse and Capuchin were astonished by what they found when they returned.

“Alright, will anyone explain to me what is going on?” Multimouse demanded.

Billi, aka Rose with the goat miraculous, and Bengalla, aka Juleka with the Tiger miraculous, snickered as they played with their opponents’ weapons. Rena Rouge and Carapace were of course weaponless and leaning on each other nearby as they were taking a nap at the moment. Which was all probably thanks to Billi’s power to make people sleep. 

Sabrina and Chloe also looked up mischievously from their ‘chairs.’

Queen Bee was sitting on the back of a frozen Ryuko, which was obviously an irritated Kagami using the Dragon miraculous as her eyes shot daggers at anyone that looked.

Sabrina, aka Lucky, had somehow extended one of her num-chuks and used it to tie Luka’s hands in such a way that he couldn’t reach his miraculous and restart time. Thus Viperion was similarly indisposed. He merely seemed to accept the situation and looked somewhat amused. 

Seeing their fearless leaders arrive in their new guises, the two winning groups chuckled and pounded their knuckles together. “Pound it!”

Capuchin barely hid his own laugh as he folded his arms and joked, “it looks like they’ve decided to wrap up our training early.”

“Ugh, Kitty…”

Chat held up a finger to stop her as he said, “not Kitty, Capuchin. You can’t call me Cap since that’s Carapace, so either Pu or Mine, My little Mousinette.” He shot his girlfriend a wink.

After a groan, Multimouse folded her arms, “I’m not calling you Pu Kitty!”

“Why not! It’s funny!” Capuchin whined as a few of their other team members chuckled.

After a groan, Multimouse asked, “once again everyone, can someone please tell us how this all happened?”

“Oh sure!” Billi bubbly replied as she swung Rena Rouge’s flute in her hand, “Bengalla and Lucky played defense and distracted these guys. It was kind of Lucky’s idea.” 

Billi then pointed towards their tied up, frozen and sleeping comrades, “once we had Rena and Carapace together, I hit them with my power,” she pulled out a fluff ball on a string that had a bit of dust traveling after it and swung it around.

Begalla giggled softly, “and then they took a nap.”

“Queen Bee and I swept in and attacked at the same time!” Lucky exclaimed exuberantly, “and once I had Viperion immobilized and unable to use his power, Queen Bee caught Ryuko with her Venom!”

“Now we have nice soft places to rest.” Queen Bee grinned almost wickedly.

“Your teammates aren’t chairs girls.” Multimouse chided as she wearily rubbed the bridge of her nose for a moment.

“Unless of course you’re dating!” Capuchin unhelpfully chimed in before whispering to Multimouse, “please.”

“Not here Kitty!” Multimouse whispered.

Pu laughed and announced, “alright, I’ll bee-have…”

“That’s my line Pu boy!” Queen Bee spoke up.

After a snort Chat went on and composed himself after seeing Multimouse’s own glare. So with a cough he began, “uh, okay. My uh, apologies Queenie. I think that what my little mouse here is trying to say is that you’ve all shown that you can wield your miraculous well but we think that whoever needs to de-transform and re-charge should go do so and then come back so we can try this again without using our powers this time.”

“Awww!” the victors groaned.

“I agree.” Multimouse nodded her approval as Billi snapped her fingers and Rena and Carapace woke up. They looked embarrassed and excused themselves to walk away a bit to plan their next defense.

Queen Bee and Lucky then got up from their not so plush seats, only for Queen Bee to huff and hop away on her own to recharge. 

Lucky untied Viperion swiftly as she apologized to him as he rubbed his wrists.

“I’m sorry, Queen Bee and I decided that we couldn’t risk letting you use your power.” Lucky explained. “I thought that it was best if we rushed you.”

“It’s okay Lucky, tackling me like that proved a good point.” Luka held up his arm with the snake miraculous on it as Lucky nodded at him gratefully. “I ought to keep my distance so I can use my power.”

“Okay then, I uh, I’ll be right back!” With that, Lucky darted off to recharge and Viperion nodded to Multimouse and Capuchin before he saluted them once and then hopped away to sit on the edge of the roof nearby as he pulled out his lyre and began to concentrate on a tune in his own world.

Capuchin pulled Multimouse close and whispered, “you make any miraculous look adorable Milady.”

“Chat!”

…

A few moments later, Ryuko unfroze as Queen Bee had apparently de-transformed in the distance releasing her from her frozen state. Ryuko stood up, brushed herself off with a blank but somehow displeased look on her face before she nodded towards Multimouse and Capuchin, who had frozen in each other’s arms, not like they had been doing anything besides kissing, but Ryuko rolled her eyes at them and then left to recharge as well.

Floating beside their wielders, Plagg and Tikki watched most everyone leave, with only Rena Rouge and Carapace to remain.

“We ought to talk to you tonight too.” Tikki announced quietly as she looked at Multimouse who was now blushing of course, while Plagg yawned behind her.

“If we must.” Plagg reluctantly agreed as he folded his arms, “but only if cheese is served.”

“Don’t be such a stinky sock Plagg!” Tikki chided her other half as he rolled his eyes and floated away to look for another place to watch the training that was about to begin.

“It’s okay Tikki.” Capuchin offered with a shrug, “he’s been kind of out of it lately.”

Tikki rubbed her paws together, “I know. It’s hard on Plagg, because the last time that we had to deal with all of this, it didn’t end well as you know.” 

Tikki took a deep breath before adding, “we-we think it’s time to tell you what happened back then from our perspective and what your new powers mean.”

“Score!” Rena Rouge explained as she and Carapace came closer, done with their planning apparently, “I can’t wait to hear it!”

“We can only tell our chosen Rena Rouge.” Tikki said as she looked meaningfully to Capuchin and Multimouse, “but we’ll do that later tonight okay?”

“Okay.” Multimouse nodded as she and Capuchin responded together. “We can give everyone a summary later if we think it’s important.”

Alya reluctantly nodded, “fine.”

“O-okay then Tikki. Thanks!” Multimouse replied before she added with a smirk at her boyfriend. “Come on Capuchin, let’s see what you got!”

Capuchin and Multimouse began to spar as they waited for everyone else to return to practice to fight on a more even playing field sans their powers. Once everyone was there, they got in a good two hour training session.

…

When everyone started to leave, Multimouse and Capuchin waved everyone else goodbye,

The backup team had worked remarkably well together, even when they had a mock battle between the new team and the so-called veterans, they held their own.

Their back up team was green, but they all fell into their roles quickly. 

One more night of practice was planned for the next night, and then they would be ready to face the enemy.


	7. Later on Tuesday Evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of the Lady Meridith and young Prince Nero as told by Tikki and Plagg and how they came to their end.

Adrien returned to Marinette’s balcony that evening as Chat Noir after she ‘had gone to bed,’ not that her parents had a reason to distrust them, but they didn’t want to disrupt their sleep either by announcing his visit, in either form.

After Adrien had de-transformed and given her a brief kiss, they sat down on Marinette’s chaise cuddled together and turned to look expectantly at their Kwami’s as Plagg groaned and they were stunned speechless by what he said next…

“Belch. Can we keep the cheesiness to a minimum please?”

Marinette was the first to giggle, only to be joined by Adrien and Tikki.

“I think it’s sweet.” Tikki admitted.

“We know SugarCube, you like EVERYTHING that sweet.” Plagg emphasized with an eyeroll as he folded his arms and looked away, “can we get on with this then? I need my beauty sleep!”

Tikki sighed, catching her partner’s wary eye, “ok, first of all, don’t call me Sugarcube you, you Stinky Sock!

“Thank you!” Plagg happily agreed.

“Ugh! And second, I’m not sure where to begin?” Tikki quieted down and looked unsure as she looked at Plagg who only looked away from her again, well, off to the side anyway, sadly. 

“Just… let’s just get it over with.” Plagg mumbled.

Tikki thought for a moment and looked towards the confused couple. “Well, maybe you should tell us what you know or have learned from your dreams so we know where to start?”

Marinette tapped her chin, “well, I get the impression that the Red Lady was kind of a sorceress herself, and kind of a low level noble maybe? Besides the miraculous powers that is.”

Tikki nodded that she was right as she looked at Adrien, who looked embarrassed, “well I uh, I’ve got the feeling that he was more than just a knight. I feel like he was a lot like me. Like he was using his status as a knight to escape from his birthright?”

“See Tikki, they know enough already, I don’t see why we have to bring everything up!” Plagg practically outed.

“Plagg, we should iron out at least some of the details if it’ll help them out.”

Both Marinette and Adrien nodded in agreement as Marinette added, “besides, the more we know the better prepared that we’ll be for this Plagg.”

“Fine. Tikki, you lead.” Plagg waved his little paw as if he didn’t care.

“Well, okay.” Tikki began, “honestly what they have in the museum is the watered down version of their story, so, um, let me tell you about the real Lady Meridith and Prince Nero.”

“Wait, so the Black knight was a Prince in disguise?” Adrien asked.

“Yes,” Tikki answered, “kind of.”

Plagg folded his arms and looked away as he explained as if lost in a memory, “yeah. He was a good kid, but it wasn’t safe for him at home. Technically he was a king when he died, but that’s not important. My miraculous was given to him when he was about ten years old, not that his relatives knew. Anyway, I was there when he was given a new identity and sent to live at the palace where Tikki’s girl wound up a few years later. Something about giving him a chance to grow up or something or other.”

“His life was in danger!?” Marinette looked worried, “even as a kid?”

“Well, yeah. Politics were brutal back then.” Plagg shrugged it off. 

Marinette and Adrien glanced at each other and held each other’s hands as they waited for more of their predecessor’s story.

“Yes well, we’re not going to get into their whole story, we’d be here all night…” Tikki tapped her little paws together as if reading Plagg’s wish not to go into too much detail was difficult.

“We don’t mind.” Adrien commented as Marinette nodded in agreement.

“I’d love to hear more about them! Look, I can go and get us some snacks.” Marinette offered.

“You’re the best Princess!” Adrien helped her to get up and gave her a quick kiss before she darted down the stairs to get them their treats as Adrien sighed, “isn’t she wonderful?”

“Don’t forget some of those cheese danish!” Plagg cried after her.

“Plagg!” Adrien whisper shouted, “you’ll appreciate whatever she brings you! You glutton!”

“Fine.” Plagg turned to Adrien, floated up into his face and looked him in the eye, seriously for a change, “but before we get into things, let me tell you that you HAVE to keep an eye on her.” Plagg pointed at the trapdoor that Marinette had just disappeared down. 

“Huh?”

“He doesn’t want history to repeat itself.” Tikki offered. “One of the reasons that their battle with the Mage ended as it did was because they didn’t go to fight him together.” 

Then Tikki flew right up next to Plagg, “you can’t let that happen Adrien!”

Adrien backed up a little and replied, “you don’t have to worry about it guys, we’ve got a whole team now, we can do this!”

“Yeah, but they have a miraculous already kid, and you can’t make their mistake of going in by yourself to save her, even with both of your new powers combined, whatever is left of that Mage is dangerous!”

“I’m still confused here…” Adrien raised an eyebrow at them, “why would they not go into a battle against their worst enemy together?”

“Just promise me kid, you’ll look after her.” Plagg looked into Adrien’s eyes to make his point as Adrien nodded that he would.

“What Plagg is trying to say is that our miraculous is stronger when they’re used together.” Tikki helpfully added. “They were both worried about facing the Mage, as one of the last people that they saved from him had the gift of prophecy and said that they couldn’t defeat the Mage without death’s hand. They were worried that one of them would die!”

“So, what happened?” Marinette asked, having overheard a bit of that as she slipped in her room with a tray of goodies and two cups of hot cocoa for herself and Adrien.

Plagg huffed, “they messed up by not trusting us or even each other. He got it in his head that as the more battle ready partner that he should take care of the Mage himself. You know, take him down all at once with Cataclysm when he wasn’t looking.”

“Lady Meridith didn’t agree and made him promise that they’d take him down together, even though the Mage could sense when she approached because of her latent magical abilities of her own.” Tikki added.

“So, she was a sorceress?” Adrien asked, “without the miraculous?”

“Kind of, she wasn’t as powerful without her miraculous…” Tikki began.

“But that would make sense Tikki.” Marinette interrupted only to get a look from Tikki to remind her to let her finish, “sorry.”

“Anyhow, she was taught some things by my previous holder who was responsible for trapping the Mage the first time.”

“The first time?”

Plagg nodded, “yeah, his war with Meridith and Nero was his second one, much bigger and more destructive than the first, but that first war has been lost to history.” He said with a wave of his paw with an air of finality.

“This Mage guy is no joke kid. Our previous wielders decided that they couldn’t kill him, thinking that would make them like him.”

“It kind of would…” Marinette began. 

“No Marinette, I agree with Plagg. This Mage is seriously dangerous!” Tikki said pleadingly as she wiped her eye, “he, he didn’t think it mattered if he hurt someone. He was ten times worse than Hawkmoth ever was!”

Marinette swallowed, “I was hoping that those parts of the dreams, the destroyed landscapes, the broken families…”

“The people that suffered.” Adrien continued, “I was hoping that that wasn’t real either.”

“Well, it was. We can’t let him get that powerful again kids.” Plagg sighed. “I know it’s asking a lot of you, but if the chance presents itself…”

Adrien swallowed and nodded as he understood the obvious, “if that’s what we need to do, I’ll do it.”

“Adrien!” Marinette gasped.

“I can’t let him hurt you or anyone else Marinette! I won’t let it happen!” Adrien objected. “Your job is creation, mine is destruction. We may not like it, but it’s what we need to do my Lady!”

Marinette, “Kitty, I can’t expect that of you! My powers would let me get closer to him, I’m more evenly matched!”

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Tikki loudly interrupted, “this isn’t something that you should argue about! Whoever has the opportunity and has to do that should just do it.” She glanced at Adrien briefly and he nodded. “Trapping him only slowed him down, he came back stronger the second time. This is the third! He has to be stopped! Now please, we have more information to give you so please, just listen!”

Marinette sniffed, unhappy with this decision and she hugged Adrien as he patted her back resolutely and answered. “We’re listening.”

“Anyway,” Plagg began again, “the first pair that went against the Mage just trapped him and they imprisoned him with the help of the Bee holder. They just forgot that not everything lasts forever.”

“Not even the best laid trap.” Tikki sighed.

“This is going to be a long talk huh?” Marinette commented sadly as she looked down at their snacks and wondered if she should go and get more as she tried not to think about what they may or would have to do.

“No, we’re going to be as brief as possible.” Tikki told them, practically reading her mind, “it’s not really important what happened in his first war. The Bee holder left on their own soon after, our wielders had to separate and well he… he never made it back to her.”

Plagg sunk in the air, “he wanted to Tikki, but he got sick and handed my miraculous off to a good man who eventually passed it on to Nero.”

“I’m sure she would understand.” Tikki took a deep breath, “okay. The short short version. Meridith was a Lady, who was taught a bit of magic by her much older lady in waiting, the holder before her. She was sent to a relative’s house for umm, better prospects and that was about the time that she was given my miraculous.”

“My Nero was already there, they were a few years apart in age and he was a young knight already.” Plagg continued, “he was almost as sickeningly smitten with her when he saw her as soon as you two were with each other.”

“Plagg!”

“What? It’s the truth!”

Tikki rolled her eyes and got back to business, “fine, moving on, Meridith was a bit of a rebel and would leave to practice her magic, her powers and how to handle her own weapons of the time.”

“Which was really unusual for a girl right?” Adrien asked.

“Yes, most young ladies were raised to run the household, not defend it. My Meridith did both!” Tikki proclaimed proudly.

Adrien chuckled as he remembered his memories, “I remember the Black Cat following her to ‘protect’ her.”

“He was probably doing that and crushing on her. She knew he was there, and she liked that he cared about her like that.” Marinette shared.

Plagg rolled his eyes, “alright, yadda, yadda, yadda. The Mage broke free and on top of the usual political scuffles that were going on my kid wound up saving the day and becoming the heir to his kingdom again with her help. Together they fought a lot of battles…”

“They were partners!” Adrien practically squealed.

“Yes, yes they were.” Tikki replied with a smile, “the best kind!”

“Then the Mage showed up again. He would appear, targeting someone with a natural ability like the prophecy guy…”

“I think there were a few of those,” Tikki commented, “there was the one that could predict the weather, another that could sense when big things would happen…”

“Yeah, basically a lot of gifted people.” Plagg cut her off, “he didn’t seem to mind who he had to hurt to get to them either, sometimes he’d be subtle…”

“and sometimes he would head an army to get to that one person.” Tikki sadly added.

“Did they ever find out what he wanted exactly?” Adrien asked between bites of a croissant.

Plagg shrugged, “what most villains want Kid, more power, world domination, you name it. Basically, they got a prophecy that said… uh, I wasn’t really paying attention Tiks, what did he say?”

“After Meridith and Nero returned the stolen part of one man’s soul, since they could only retrieve one at time without killing or defeating the Mage completely, the old man woke up out of his catatonic state once the part that was missing was returned to him. When he did, he told them, ‘The broken souls cannot leave the Monster without death. Peace will not be found until death’s door is opened. A Prayer granted and prayer given will save all.’ I think that was what it was anyway.” 

Tikki shrugged. “We assumed the Mage would have to be killed with Cataclysm…”

Plagg rolled his eyes, “which caused my kitten to go off on his own.”

“Breaking his promise to wait until sunrise and fight the Mage with Meridith!” Tikki objected.

“Nope, we’re not going to argue about this again Tiks. We all knew that that prophecy or whatever meant that someone would have to die to defeat the monster that was that Mage. My kitten couldn’t stand a life without your bug, so he promised to wait to attack the Mage together.”

“Well, she couldn’t risk losing him either, that’s why she planned to sneak off in the morning before breakfast to catch the Mage off guard!”

“Well, my Kitten heard her tell her maid about getting ready to go and be a fool and beat her to the punch and left himself!”

“Well, she discovered that he was gone before dawn and went to save him!”

“Tikki! Plagg!” Marinette interrupted their argument, “please, what’s in the past is in the past, we just need to know what happened, not who was right.”

Plagg looked down and mumbled, “sorry Tikki.”

“I’m sorry too Plagg. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

Plagg nodded. “I know, it was just hard to lose another Kitten. I really liked him.”

“I really liked her too Plagg.” Tikki patted Plagg’s back comfortingly.

Adrien and Marinette glanced at each other, only for Plagg to clear his throat and start talking again, “I guess the gist of it is, he went to battle the Mage himself and was mortally wounded. She came and took up the fight…”

“Nearly losing her own life.” Tikki added sadly.

Plagg brushed off her comment, “Meridith managed to trap the Mage, but being weak herself and who she was, she couldn’t help to bring herself to kill him even though they both knew that he would eventually escape again and wouldn’t think twice about killing whoever tried to stop him.”

Tikki nodded and let Plagg explain, “my kitten, Nero, he was still barely there and told her that she needed to strike while she had the chance before the next battle with the Mage became worse than the one that they had been fighting since he… he wouldn’t be there to help her.”

“That broke her heart. Knowing the magical side of things, she knew that they had to release all the partial souls that the Mage had within him before they could destroy him, at least the ones that had a place to go and would leave him.” Tikki sighed, “he was so evil and was only a sum of his parts by then in a way I suppose.”

“But neither of them had the strength to do more than what they had already done before he could escape.” Plagg added, “so my kitten suggested that they use the wish to do it.”

“Wait, they used the wish?!” Marinette and Adrien exclaimed together, both knowing that was NOT a good option, for anyone.


	8. Early Morning Group Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some necessary meetings and an unexpected loss...

“All right, now why am I up at 8:00am in the morning?!” Chloe demanded as she looked around at the first string of heroes, Adrien, Marinette, Alya and Nino as they sat around her bedroom with worried looks on their faces.

“We called this meeting to tell you what our kwami’s told us.” Marinette replied as she passed around a box of pastries that she had brought them all for breakfast.

“Fine, go ahead!” Chloe muttered with a wave of her hand as she sipped her morning drink.

“You’re sure grouchy in the morning Dude.” Nino commented.

“You’d better believe it!” Chloe replied as she pulled out her phone and typed out something. “I’ve arranged massages for us all in an hour since obviously I need to relax.”

“Oh, thank you Chlo?” Adrien offered as he gave Marinette a shrug.

Marinette rolled her eyes, “as I was saying, Tikki and Plagg told us how the Mage was defeated last time. They used a wish!”

Nino choked on his bagel as Alya patted his back hard as he tried to dislodge it, which he eventually did, “Dudes! You mean that they used the reality altering wish?!”

“Yep.” Adrien replied, “they tried to word it just right, but apparently it separated the partial souls that he had collected that held the special powers that he wanted for himself. Without them, they thought he died or was killed by using the wish.”

“But he’s here now, so obviously that didn’t happen like that.” Plagg shrugged unhelpfully.

“Wait, so what happened to the Red Witch and her knight the Black Cat?” Alya asked.

“Her real name was Lady Meridith and his name was Prince, err, King Nero.” Tikki explained. “They used the wish because a prophecy that they heard mentioned a prayer, back then that could be interpreted as a wish, I think they figured that out in the end.”

“Oh, tell me more!” Alya pleaded.

“Well, they did get married.” Marinette grinned at Adrien who winked at her.

“They were REALLY in love.” Adrien wagged his eyebrows.

“Eww!” Chloe shrieked as she threw a pillow in Adrien’s face, “focus Adrikins!”

Adrien laughed but then sighed, “alright, alright. After she made the wish…”

Adrien looked up at Marinette, who closed her eyes and finished sadly, “he passed away in her arms.”

“Aww!” Nino and Alya sadly commented.

Marinette sniffed and wiped her eyes, “I dreamed of it last night. She was heartbroken, and well, she wanted to be with him, so she put all her strength into her powers to heal the damage from their last battle and to bless the land.”

“And she did Marinette.” Tikki flew out and landed on Marinette’s shoulder to comfort her. “Without making a second wish, she pushed out her powers and helped everyone so she could be with Nero again. Plagg and I had to find new wielders on our own.”

Adrien nodded as he wrapped an arm around Marinette and brushed her cheek gently, “I know you’re worried Princess, but we’re not them and we have each other, and two teams! We’ll beat him this time!”

“Or die trying.” Nino seriously echoed, with a far off look on his face.

Alya covered her mouth and shook her head at him.

“Only if we have to Nino,” Marinette whispered, not wanted to repeat the prophecy of old but understood that Nino knew that this Mage HAD to be stopped.

“only if we have to.” Adrien resolutely repeated, giving Marinette a reassuring squeeze.

“Now about those massages…” Plagg intrupted, “does that include us too? Or do we just get a cheese plate or something as a consolation prize?”

“Plagg!”

…

“Welcome to our massage parlor!” A young woman greeted them at the reception desk. She passed them all trays with robes neatly folded on them and led them back into the larger group massage space, pointing out individually curtained off areas for each of them. “Please undress to your level of comfort, remove your valuables so they won’t be hurt by our oils and put on your robes. I’ll be back to get you in just a moment!” The girl nodded goodbye to them and left.

“That seemed oddly specific.” Marinette noted as she hesitated going into her own area next to Adrien’s.

“Please Dupain-Ch, um, I mean Marinette, they always say that. I’ve left thousand-euro earrings on my tray beneath my clothes on that silly shelf they provide and they never touched them!”

“I’m sure we can keep our miraculous on.” Adrien whispered in her ear, “I doubt there’s much that could harm them.”

They heard an audible scoff come from Adrien’s shirt pocket.

Marinette nodded, “yeah, I’m probably worrying about nothing. But I’m keeping mine on anyway.”

“If you were really worried about it you could have left it in my room.” Chloe hissed behind her curtain as she got ready.

“You took it off!”

“Of course! I wouldn’t want to lose it and Pollen is watching it, she knows where to find me.”

“Dude! You can do that?”

“Of course, Master…” Wayzz’s calm voice answered.

“Dude, we’ve talked about this, it’s Nino!” Nino whispered as everyone chuckled at him, Wayzz was determined to call him Master it seemed since Nino was training to be the new guardian.

“My apologies Nino, if you would like I can guard my miraculous for a time.”

“Yeah, you do that.” Nino answered, “they’ll think it’s weird that I wear it or something.”

“Trixx, you too!”

“Just send them up to my room with them.” Chloe ordered, “Pollen is very good about ordering room service and can get them some snacks!”

“Score!” Trixx squealed as she flew into Nino’s curtained area carrying their necklace as they went to get Wayzz.

“Dude! I’m getting dressed here.”

“Nothing that a kwami hasn’t seen before!” Plagg answered for them as he popped out of Adrien’s shirt and flew to his hand for his miraculous.

“Wait! No Plagg! Not you too!”

“But Adrien! Food!”

“No you glutton, I’ll get you something when we’re done.” Adrien’s voice echoed as everyone was getting ready in their own areas. “With everything as they are, I want you nearby.”

“Hmph, I’m not talking to you! I should be fed like everyone else!”

“Plagg!” Adrien scolded lightly, “you know we need to be prepared, especially now.”

“Hmph!” Plagg floated out of Adrien’s curtained off area and phased into Marinette’s, only to catch her tying up her robe.

“Can you believe this Tikki? They’re abusing us!”

“They are not you stinky sock! They’re being smart!”

“I’m sorry Tikki that you get to miss out too, but thank you for understanding. Adrien and I will get you a nice lunch after this.”

“Of course!” Tikki happily replied.

Marinette shrugged as she sat down to wait for their massage therapists, “plus, I doubt our miraculous will be noticed.”

“That’s fine Marinette, Plagg and I will hide while you all relax.”

“Traitors.” Plagg mumbled.

“If you have a problem say something or nothing at all Plagg.” Tikki scolded him.

“Ugh, fine Tiks! I won’t say a word until I get lunch!” Plagg huffed as he floated over to Marinette’s things and wiggled under them to find her purse which has a perfect kwami sized compartment for a nap.

“I’ll stay hidden until then too,” Tikki told Marinette sweetly, “and I’ll try to keep him from grousing.”

“I heard that!”

Marinette chuckled as Tikki flew off to join Plagg.

“Are you decent My Lady?” Adrien then purred, “I miss you!”

“Ewww!” Chloe’s voice echoed, “she’s decent by now, just go sit beside her and stay quiet, pa-lease!”

“Yeah Nino, while we wait, we should take a minute to make out too!” Alya snickered.

“Oh, come on!” Chloe grumbled and the rest of them laughed as they waited for their massages and bonus facials to begin.

…

“Ahh! I could get used to this!” Alya sighed beneath the hot towel on her face as she relaxed in a golden recliner.

“Me too!” Marinette sighed beneath her own towel as she wiggled her fingers as they were placed in a soaking bowl by one of the employees serving them.

“Just keep being nice to me and maybe we can make this like a weekly team meeting thing or something.” Chloe offered from behind a curtain as she was getting her massage.

“I’m game Dudette!” Nino sighed as he was getting his massage too behind his own curtain nearby.

Adrien yawned beneath his own face towel as his fingers soaked in a bowl to remove his old layer of polish, having had the most polish of them all, well, after Chloe, ironically. “That’s really generous of you Chloe.” One of the workers began to massage his fingers as part of his extra mani-pedi.

“I know, that’s just the way that I am! Oh, yeah, right there! Ugh!” Chloe groaned in pleasure as her shoulders were being massaged.

“We must switch out your towels now, we must keep them fresh!” One of the employees offered to Adrien, Marinette and Alya in an odd voice.

“Why didn’t we get new ones?” Nino weakly asked from his massage table.

“Don’t tell me my facial was shortened!” Chloe echoed the sentiment in her own way.

“N-No Mademoiselle!” A girl responded hastily, still in an unnatural pitch but in a confident tone, “their towels weren’t fully heated as yours were. So, we’re switching them out midway.”

“Fine.” Chloe dismissed the idea as the employee switched out Marinette’s, Alya’s and Adrien’s towels as they all continued to relax.

…

Inside of Marinette’s purse, it wasn’t so comfortable for two bickering kwami.

“Plagg, aren’t you going to talk to me?” Tikki asked the grouchy cat beside her.

“Not until you apologize for insinuating that I get enough cheese! You know it practically withers away as soon as it touches my tongue.” Plagg turned his back on her and huffed, “which is why I need more! I don’t see why everyone else gets to have fun while we sit by for no reason!”

“Only you would see eating yourself sick as fun. Besides, we’re kwami, it’s our jobs to look out for our chosen!” Tikki folded her arms and waited for minute, but when Plagg didn’t say anything she sighed and turned her back on him, “if you’re going to be that way, then I won’t talk to you either!”

Plagg rolled his eyes, but then felt a draft and suddenly felt very alone. Turning around, he noticed that not only could he not sense Tikki, but he couldn’t see her either.

Plagg managed to whisper, “Tikki? Where did you g- ?” Before he disappeared as well….

…

After their massages and facials, they walked out together as a group, only for Adrien’s phone to ring.

Adrien answered his phone and nodded as he glanced at Marinette, “do you think we have time to quickly stop at father’s house? Nathalie wants us to come over right away to get our opinion on something.”

“Sure, I didn’t know they were back.” Marinette shrugged, “but we can do that real quick, if that’s okay with everyone.”

Nino and Alya nodded and Chloe scoffed as she waved her hand dismissively, “whatever.”

“Okay, we’re coming, send the limo.” Adrien responded into the phone before he hung up.

“So, does that mean you’re leaving us?” Chloe folded her arms and warily eyed him.

“Just for a bit, we’ll be right back.” Adrien replied. “Father wants us to pick out our favorites from what Nathalie said was the ‘acceptable’ shots. Father’s looking for more of my, err, our input lately and lets us pick out our favorite shots for the new ads sometimes now. Usually there’s only like three pictures after he’s gone through them all.”

“Dude, why right now?” Nino asked.

“They need to be sent off to the editor right away.” Adrien replied as he took Marinette’s hand to lead her out the door. “Don’t worry, it’s a really quick chore.”

“Fine.” Chloe huffed, “but your cocoa will be cold if you don’t hurry back.”

Adrien grinned, “we’ll be back soon Chloe, I promise!”

…

Adrien was only sort of right, since the errand took over half an hour. Nathalie had more photos than he had expected after all.

It really wasn’t their fault though, since Marinette and Adrien were mobbed by fans that had heard that they were at the massage parlor on their way out to the entrance earlier. Adrien and Marinette had taken the time to sign a few of their recent advertisements and photos and then they were able to slip into the limo for the otherwise ten-minute errand.

Finally, they were back, a little out of breath from running from their fans.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this.” Marinette sighed as she sat down.

Everyone else in Chloe’s room, who had left with Chloe as soon as they could already without them chuckled.

“Ugh, I thought that we’d never escape!” Adrien sighed as he slumped onto one of Chloe’s couches beside her.

Marinette giggled, “aren’t you the one that said that that was the price of popularity?”

“You shouldn’t be a model if you can’t handle it Adrikins!” Chloe mocked playfully.

Adrien dramatically draped his arm over his face and leaned back as he cried, “I can’t help it if I’m beautiful!”

Nearly everyone laughed at that, but Marinette just rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

“By the way, call out your cheese monster, that plate that Pollen ordered for him is peeling the paint off of my walls.” Chloe dismissed with a wave of her hand as she took a bite of a finger sandwich from a pile that was ordered for the humans.

Adrien sat up immediately and looked confused, “Plagg? Get out here! You can forgive me now, Chloe and Pollen got you some cheese!”

Marinette swallowed the last bite of her own little sandwich that she had grabbed as she sat down as she realized that she hadn’t seen Tikki for some time either. “Tikki!? There’s cookies here too! Come on out!”

“Come on Plagg! This isn’t funny!”

Alya and Nino looked at each other and then at their friends who were looking around for their respective kwami to come out, but the two complementary kwami never appeared.

“Tikki? Tikki?! PLAGG?! Where did they go?” Marinette looked worried as she pulled out her purse and looked inside, her voice growing more alarmed every moment.

“Are they taking a nap or something?” Adrien asked before he shrugged, “normally he forgives me as soon as there’s some cheese to eat. Hmm, but that’s not something that he’d sleep through.”

Marinette shook her head, “no, they’re not here Adrien!”

Everyone was looking around the room now, and Nino nudged Wayzz who was taking a nap on a nearby pillow. “Wayzz, can you sense Tikki and Plagg?”

The turtle kwami floated up in the air and rubbed his eyes before he gasped, “Master, I don’t sense…”

Then Alya shrieked as she pointed at the studs in Marinette’s ears, “Marinette! Since when do you wear diamonds!”

As shocked as Marinette was at Alya’s exclamation, Adrien looked down at his ring automatically, which was now a solid gold band etched with an intricate repeating pawprint pattern.

Having watched her boyfriend’s movements in her frozen state, Marinette’s eyes met Adrien’s as they both gasped as they exhaled, “oh no!”

Nino succinctly exclaimed, “Dude! Someone stole your miraculous!”


	9. Lost Miraculous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has stolen the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculous, but who could it be?

After searching Chloe’s room thoroughly, and after Marinette almost had a nervous breakdown, and Adrien (gladly) had to practically give her a personal tonsillectomy with his own tongue to get her to focus, Chloe clapped her hands loudly.

“Alright! First of all, EWW!”

Alya and Nino snickered as Marinette and Adrien pulled apart to blush at their friends.

“Okay, now that our ‘fearless leader’ is too breathless to freak out, when could this have happened?” Chloe asked pointedly.

Adrien replied after an embarrassed cough as he caught his own breath as he held his blushing girlfriend with one arm, “we ah, last saw them at the massage parlor, ah, before our massages.”

“B-but we never took our miraculous off!” Marinette objected as she flailed her hands a bit as she talked, still a bit flustered.

“Gurl, you two were the only ones that didn’t!” Alya exclaimed as Chloe huffed.

“Ridiculous, this is utterly ridiculous!” Chloe cried out as she thought about it. “Our employees would never dare do that! Now think about it, well, where else could that have happened? You did have to deal with all those fans and go to Uncle Gabriel’s. Could one of your fans have taken them?”

Adrien shook his head, “I don’t see how. Mine maybe, but I think I’d notice it being taken and being replaced.”

“Same here.” Marinette commented.

Adrien nodded, “besides, I don’t think that anyone got close enough to my Princess’s ears to take both of them without either of us noticing when we were standing there with them.”

“Dude, much less replace them with those really awesome,” Nino was inspecting Marinette’s ears but backed off at the look she gave him, “but totally expensive replacements.” Nino corrected himself.

“That is totally a clue, I mean they do look authentic. I hate to say it, but what do you think Chloe?” Alya suggested.

Chloe held one hand out to Marinette who handed her one of the earrings as Chloe pulled out a magnifier out of her purse to inspect it.

“Do you always carry one of those Dudette?” Nino asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course!” Chloe looked closer at the large diamond stud with it, “you have to ready to inspect for counterfeits!”

A few pairs of eyes rolled as Marinette asked, “Well, does the diamond tell you anything?” 

“Plenty, but mainly two things.” Chloe handed it back to Marinette, “they’re not recently made, well I hope they’re not anyway, because it has no serial number. If it was recently made that means that it came from a bad source to say the least! Which most diamonds like that now have a number. From what I can tell, it’s a high-grade diamond. It’s either a D or E color, roughly 3 and a half carats and is gorgeous, despite the rather old-fashioned cut! I’d totally expect that one alone to be worth over $40,000 Euros!” 

“WHAT!” Everyone but Adrien exclaimed.

“That’s expensive?” Adrien asked innocently as Chloe took his hand and inspected his ring next.

“Bro! That’s like more than a year’s paycheck for your average dude and there’s two of them!”

Adrien shrugged, “sorry, I had no idea!”

“Oh, sorry Adrikins, this is totally a cheap gold trinket, not worth more than a few hundred Euros, like I’d even pay that much for it!” She turned up her nose at Adrien’s replacement ring as she dropped his hand disdainfully. 

“Oh.” Adrien looked at it, “at least it has a nice design.”

Alya and Nino glanced at each other and rolled their eyes again.

Chloe just held up her hand showing that she was, for once, biting back a snarky comment.

“Guys! We need to focus!” Marinette called out, “obviously someone knew they’re valuable, since they tried to give us something valuable to replace them.”

“Pfft, as if! A miraculous is worth far more than that!” Chloe exclaimed.

“Right, so Chloe discovered that they’re old and expensive. Who would have a pair of earrings like that laying around and just use them to steal my miraculous or even know that Adrien liked cats?!”

“Pawprints could mean any animal. Even it’s etching is generic!” Chloe complained.

“Well, supposedly Hawkmoth knows us?” Alya shrugged. “He could have orchestrated the switch somehow right?”

“Yeah, but I thought that Hawkmoth was going to work with us.” Nino added as Marinette nodded her agreement with him.

“That’s why I don’t think he did this.” Marinette whispered, “we already agreed to work with him, it would have been easier to take them without telling us he suspected us before.”

“Well, it seems silly to suggest that they fell out and a new pair jumped in…” Alya shrugged.

“Pfft! Of course, it would be!” Chloe agreed. “Obviously they were taken by someone rich enough to not care what they replaced them with, so long as they were valuable enough to look like they would fit on you since you’re both well, better off than some and you’re always wearing something. They’re just place holders really.”

“Totally.” Nino echoed.

“Yeah, but that means that they didn’t take the time to find exact replicas!” Alya sounded a bit excited.

“O-Okay.” Adrien raised an eyebrow at her, “so you think it was someone who recognized what they were, gave us something that no one would think twice about seeing at first on us and that would at least feel like the real things.”

“Don’t forget, they’re from old money!” Chloe added.

“Wait, what makes you say that?”

“No serial number and someone who doesn’t care what they were worth to just give them away for one. It only seems like they had the time to find something that was the approximate weight of Adrien’s ring but it wasn’t something from your local SuperMart either.” 

“Those are good points Chloe!” Marinette added.

“Well, where can we find someone like that?”

“I think the massage parlor is our best bet!” Nino volunteered.

“No way! I’d have known if there was a rich customer before or after us, we had the place to ourselves so it makes sense that it happened elsewhere!” Chloe argued.

“Just because you think your customers are better than that…” Alya began as she folded her arms and began to argue back.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Marinette objected, “let’s, let’s just retrace our steps, maybe they will show up or we’ll find someone that fits the thief’s description!”

“Sounds like a plan Dudes!” Nino helped Alya up, “let’s take this party to Adrien’s place so we can totally check the limo on the way there too...”

“It’s my father’s place actually.” Adrien interjected as he blushed as he looked at a red Marinette, “I’m getting my own place fixed up soon remember? But, we ah, did stop in my room there for a minute.” Referencing one of their stolen moments to smooch each other senseless.

Chloe rolled her eyes, “TMI Adrikins, but that still wouldn’t explain why you’re wearing new jewelry. Ugh, come on let’s get this over with!”

Chloe then led the way to the entrance of her father’s hotel as Adrien called for his driver.

…

After retracing their steps, avoiding the waiting fans again and inspecting the limo, they were now in Adrien’s room with everyone a little upset as they tried to think things through after finding nothing there either.

“Well, the only ones that got close enough to take them then were probably the massage therapists.” Alya suggested as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully and interrupted Chloe who scoffed at the idea after they had thoroughly checked Adrien’s old couch, “I know you don’t like the idea Chloe, but now that I think about it, didn’t they like switch out the towels out on Adrien and Marinette?”

“Dude! I thought that was totally not normal!” Nino nodded his agreement, “my girl is the best!”

Chloe already had pulled out her phone and was dialing the manager at the massage parlor. “Fine, I agree that that was strange and shouldn’t have happened. I’m totally calling the manager about this!”

“I’ll, I’ll call Master Fu, he needs to know about this too.” Marinette sadly commented as she stepped into Adrien’s bathroom for some privacy.

The rest of them all waited patiently as they listened to Chloe as someone picked up the phone.

“Hello? Yes, this is Miss Bourgeois and I need to speak to the manager!”

Chloe tapped her foot as she waited to be connected, but then impatiently responded to a question from the apparently worried manager. “Our massages were acceptable except for that fact that my friend’s jewelry was stolen!”

She lifted her eyebrow at Marinette who returned looking even more worried than when she left.

“Dude, did you reach Master Fu?” Nino asked.

“He didn’t pick up the phone.” Marinette mumbled as Adrien went to her side and hugged her supportively.

Chloe however, was just getting warmed up. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but Adrikins went in wearing one ring and came out wearing another! And his girlfriend’s earrings were switched out from plain boring onyx studs to diamonds!”

“Uh huh, no, that does not mean that they traded up!” Chloe paused, “ugh, they uh, had sentimental value! We want them back!”

“Uh huh, and just why don’t you think your ‘therapists’ wouldn’t steal something from my celebrity friends? I’m sure lots of weirdo’s would love to add them to their weird celebrity shrines!”

“Chloe!” Adrien whisper hissed and she just rolled her eyes at him as she waved him off with her free hand.

“What do you mean ‘maybe it was our other friends?’ We didn’t have any other friends show up!”

Then there was a pregnant pause as Chloe’s eye’s lit up as if she had realized what had happened.

“What! Well, did you stop them when they left?” Chloe rolled her eyes, “uh uh, so you say that they went in with fresh towels to surprise us and left within a minute without us! Didn’t that seem unusual?!”

There was another short pause.

“The younger one lied then about knowing us obviously.” Chloe almost growled as she tried to remain calm as she asked, “so what did they look like?”

“Uh huh,” Chloe’s face clouded even more as she frowned and looked at Adrien then Marinette as she repeated, “a girl about our age with olive toned skin, green eyes, long sausage like hair escorting an older blind oriental woman wearing glasses that she said was her mother, but they didn’t look related!?”

Marinette grasped Adrien’s arm as she hissed, “Lila! That sounds like Lila.”

Adrien nodded as he seemed to think about it, “but the only blind oriental woman we know is Kagami’s mother…”

“No way! Lila told wild stories, but she never stole anything!” Alya objected, forgetting some certain unproven instances involving Lila. Still, Alya looked less than convinced than she tried to sound, “and wait, why would Kagami’s mother be helping her?!”

“Dude, they’re like the only ones that could have done it!” Nino patted her shoulder as he tried to calm her as Chloe waved at them to keep it down as she began to wrap up her call.

“But who would want to take their miraculous! They don’t look expensive and who would know that they’re well, what they are?” Alya pointed out with a low hiss.

“Fine. You call the police and make a report, I think I know who it was now so we’ll just have to confront them ourselves. No, I don’t think that’s necessary, I have to go. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” Chloe exclaimed as she swiped the disconnect button dramatically.

“Unfortunately, Mrs. Bourgeois, but I have to agree.” An older man’s voice replied from the open doorway.

Everyone took in a shocked breath as they turned around, only to find Gabriel Agreste himself holding himself up with the aid of a cane as he stated with a nod. “It’s good to see you again Adrien, Marinette.” 

Adrien shook himself out of his stupor and jogged over to hug his father, who looked emaciated but still pleased to see his son. “Father!”

Adrien hugged his usually distant father and almost knocked him over in the process, as he stumbled when they made contact.

Gabriel grasped Adrien’s shoulder to steady himself as he hesitantly steadied himself as he returned the hug. “It’s good to see you too, son.”

Adrien swallowed and stepped back as he looked at his father, finally taking in how sickly he looked. “Father, are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine Adrien.” Then he looked around at the others as he asked, “now, correct me if I’m wrong, but you said that you were missing your miraculous?”

Everyone gasped in astonishment, but only apparently only Nino could speak.

“Say Whattttt?!!!” 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, health wise I'm doing better and I'll try to update monthly on this story or sooner if I'm able to now until it's done. The chapter number is tentative, but we'll just have to see how that goes. Thanks for reading!


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